In all likelihood, we can see the charm of this game fizzling out in a couple of weeks, but it's damned good fun while it lasts. [JPN Import]

Only really recommended for wide-eyed children who are yet to tire of jumping on switches and collecting thousands of shiny, yet meaningless, tokens.

We'd like to see the player rewarded for his skills more, that the game was fairer. There remain plenty of moments in Winning Eleven 9 where you'll scream with frustration not because 'that's football' but because the game does something that's completely out of your control, and for that reason we have to mark it down.

Combat Elite makes an ideal rental title, three days being a good length of time to gauge whether you can tolerate quite so many invisible walls and German soldiers shooting you from nowhere.

Playing as Kong is a joy, (see boxout for details) but it's all too brief a flirtation with primal rage - scooping Ann up in his oversized hand and fending-off a Jurassic Park of tyrannosaurs with wrestling inspired moves, after swinging through a jungle canopy with all the grace of Ico is inspiring, but it feels like little more than a cameo.

Aside from the somewhat devastating problems with the camera, Combat Elite is a nifty little number that has all the addictiveness, interaction, and 'pick up and play' of many retro titles that people still cherish today.

For such a promising, daring game ultimately to play no differently at the end than it did at the beginning only underscores what a tremendous disappointment it is. As a pure cinematic experience it's absolutely unrivalled; as a videogame, it falls tragically short of the mark.

The definitive, most universally appealing WWII title ever made. It's not that the game does anything more or less than its digital brothers in arms, far from it, but instead it strips the genre down to the bare essentials and this turns it into one of the most pure shooters we've seen for some time.

The trouble is, with the likes of "Project Gotham Racing 3" and "Test Drive Unlimited" looking pretty awesome - that level of expectation is very high - and this latest Need For Speed adventure doesn't quite have the weight to match it.

Dragon Quest VIII's world flows. It moves. It's utterly huge. It reminds one of "Zelda: Ocarina of Time" on a "Grand Theft Auto" scale. It is an adventure. It's possible to get hopelessly lost in mountain paths, or on tributaries in rivers that dissect giant continents with no place to land a boat outside of a shady hidden casino in the rocks. [JPN Import]

Nasty visuals, odd camera work, silly levels - Shadow suffers from all the problems for which people have criticised every other 3D Sonic game only, for the most part, to a greater degree. Deserves to get lost among the Christmas rush and never found or spoken of again.

The painfully overused 'gangsta-speak', the cop with a grudge against you and Josie Maran trying to pop your hood the whole time are all completely unnecessary, although not particularly obstructive, adornments. Otherwise though, this is everything you already love about Need For Speed plus the pigs.

There's plenty of puzzling-out what to do next but it's never too basic or too complex. You get a good sense of achievement out of completing chapters and get to regularly unlock new moves for your efforts.

The only problem now is where THQ takes things from here; if it doesn't want to fall into the FIFA-trap, it'll have to come up with something pretty special next time.

There's little cohesion between one level and another, which makes the whole experience like fast-forwarding between fight scenes while trying to understand the story.

Without Warning fails miserably at whatever it set out to achieve. A lousy camera and ropey AI take a lot away from the cinematic style, and the sheer weight of repetition involved in the missions does little to expand on an idea that could have become a great title.

The biggest indictment against From Russia With Love, however, is that it makes the whole experience of being Bond seem about as much fun as an afternoon spent at a stamp-collecting convention, which is something 007 should never stand accused of. It's dull, banal, boring and any other adjectives that can be used to describe a game unworthy of your attention.

The series may seem a little aged after just 12 months - something underlined by the superior alternative of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat which is already available - but there's a lot here to get to grips with, especially given that multiplayer effectively triples the potential, with offline and online modes fleshing out the action.

Every moment spent in the game world, from the ramshackle village to the far-from-abandoned military installation, is pure, adrenaline-fuelled fun. The game doesn't want to be big or clever - it wants to take you on a roller-coaster ride that leaves you breathless. And it does.

Gladiator has a well-planned multiplayer mode that works on and offline so we're left with a fairly empty, meaningless experience of stupid weapons, coin collection and weapon upgrading that makes you wonder why you're playing. The answer: Multiplayer or you're recovering from a coma.

A high watermark for where epic hack'n'slash games should be at this stage of the Xbox's lifecycle.

Why publishers can't just leave classic titles to die gracefully in the warm glow of our misguided reminiscing, is beyond us. Taito Legends represents the crème of the crop, but it still tastes a little sour with age.

The Sims 2 might not be an incredible game, technically, but it's the stories that are written in your head and the situations that are thrown up as you play that make it a unique experience.

It's the sort of title we'd recommend to anyone who fancies something a little different and is prepared to put in several hours hard graft - but it's just too slow and doesn't twist itself far enough into the spooky or surreal.

The visuals are sharp, the audio is awesome (whack up the 5.1) and the action comes thick and fast in what is one of the most frenetic and exciting shooters we've seen for a while.

It's SOCOM meets Hitman and it makes lying in the rubble of a blown-out rathaus a tense, exciting and deeply satisfying pastime.

With so many World War II games on the market, Earned In Blood's dedication to creating an understanding of what the war meant to those who fought it, as much as providing the player with a recognisable game, should be lauded.

We love this one too, though it's more out of loyalty than out and out lust.

Not as great as real poker, but certainly the next best thing. Now take those socks off, we got three kings.

The difficulty level is very high, even on baby-mode and the AI is no slouch on mixing up the special attacks. Fans will love the new additions and enormity of the game, although some might be put off by the pared down attacks but those new to the series may be put off by the rock hard difficulty level.

The Warriors doesn't do anything particularly wrong - it's a perfectly acceptable game - but at the same time it doesn't do anything spectacular.

Fans of S-RPGs will adore this game. When you play a game as in-depth as this you aren't paying too much attention to how pretty the graphics are. That said, Intelligent Systems has had experience with the GameCube previously and there's no excuse for the game looking as bland it does. [JPN Import]

LA Rush is the grubby Downtown district of LA to "Burnout's" Hollywood, if you will - the two games aren't exactly that similar but with so many better options out there, Midway's offering will be lucky not to simply be left on the shelves alongside a few rotting copies of "Turok Evolution."

As addictive as its predecessor thanks to its hypnotic racing, perfect feel and disregard for videogame rules.

The unnecessary complications lie in the sheer volume of convoluted commands crammed onto the DualShock for use throughout the game.

It may be far from perfect, but there are fleeting moments of exhilaration where FIFA 06 resembles a game of football like no other, and when this is coupled with a 15 year Career mode that now even enables you to choose your team's sponsor, even the most stubborn EA-hater will have to concede that this, for the most part, is a success.

Easily the best game in the series to date. We can, at last, put the mess that was "Conflict: Vietnam" behind us and continue down this far brighter path.

It's good fun, but the novelty of these funky worms waving goodbye in surreal style can wear off pretty quickly.

Most annoying of all is the painfully slow response of the players, as they stumble through their pre-set animations, never sparing a thought that the button you pressed two-seconds earlier might be a little inappropriate now.

As with most aerial-based antics most of the games' objectives are straight forward and involve little more than clearing the screen of enemies but the blend of black and white wartime footage, airborne action and wonderfully recreated propaganda posters immersed us so much.

It might not revolutionise the Xbox and it won't appeal to everyone, but those looking to head to the skies and kick some ass will not be let down by the single-player campaign in Heroes Of The Pacific, while the multiplayer options add another dimension to the game, with the chance to send your mates hurtling into the drink with their tails on fire.

Race Drivin' was one of the earliest 'real' driving simulators but doesn't remotely stand the test of time. It's deadly slow and bereft of any excitement whatsoever. Unfortunately this describes most of the games on this disc.

Far Cry Instincts not only equals its PC cousin but actually manages to better it.

One of the most fantastically rubbish games of the year. It's a game that combines awesome with awful, cool with crap and it could tear the nation in two. Will you love it or hate it? Sorry, we can't help you out with that one because this is a Marmite moment and it's spread very, very thick.

Our demon-manifesting rage at the total mediocrity of this series isn't helped by the dodgy jaggy graphics or frequent and annoyingly long loading times, but if you played the original and kept an end of game save, you may want to continue your story.

What Sly offers is what it has always offered; quality cartoon stylisation and tight (yet slight) play mechanics. It's a gentle game that leads you through it with welcome arms.

At the very least this is a good-looking wasted opportunity, while at its most, it's a snazzy disappointment.

Well, now Fahrenheit is here in all its understated, slow-burning glory; and chances are most gamers will probably be blissfully unaware that the adventure genre has changed for the better in Quantic Dream's latest masterpiece.

Despite being essentially the same ride as before, the improvements make this as good - if not a little better - than the original.

Sadly, Genji gameplay appears to be as stuck in the past as its setting and there's no amount of elegance that can cover a flaw like that up.

Having old enemies join forces against Apocalypse is a decent idea for an X-Men story, it's a shame that it has been rendered into a series of dull maps and substandard action. One for collectors.

But it's not just the complicated sequence of button presses that jip you, nuh-uh - it's the levels and their trial-and-error nature. Constantly having to repeat a level until you find the correct route, or discovering the correct squads to take in with you does become frustrating.

Easily a contender for game of the year and, potentially, the last great piece of original gaming left for current-gen Xbox owners to discover.

Like the billions of other platformers fighting for shelf space, it's just kind of... there. The lack of frustration means it's good for kids but for everyone else, why settle for Kimberly when you can have Cheryl?

Despite there being a massive selection of attacks at your disposal, you won't use them, and after battling through your seventeenth batch of Oni bastards, you'll soon settle for the simplest and most effective means of disposal and trade any style for progress.

New modes, new vehicles and a whole new batch of trophies and awards to obtain (including the awesome Vertical Takedowns that see you falling from a height to land on a rival) all make for an experience that has enough in common with the sublime "Burnout 3" to create a feeling of comfort, but is different enough to test you all over again.

Rainbow Six Lockdown doesn't quite join the ranks of the big guns because it has too many inconsistencies and troublesome flaws to hold up as an endlessly entertaining experience.

Afar as 2D fighting games go, this is right up there with the best, if not THE best.

Anyone put off by the steep learning curve will be missing out on some exhilarating racing action both on- and offline. The Live modes are impeccable.

Even the hippity-hop music is utterly lacklustre, and somehow it feels out of place in a G-Ridin' gangsta game. How is this? Avoid this unless you bought "FIFA Street," in which case you're beyond our help.

Whereas the races are as pedestrian as they come - immediately putting the kibosh on any plans you may have had to enjoy the online or co-op modes - the presentation that surrounds the gameplay is one of the worst attempts to sell a shoddy product to 'gangster' worshiping kids we've ever witnessed.

The only redeeming factor to Beat Down is almost everything is underlined with extra options such as negotiating, robbing, recruiting and so on. Normally, this flexibility would be welcomed but in Beat Down's case, having these extra options is akin to a Steven Seagal DVD being packaged with two discs of extras. Who cares?

If you missed the first game altogether, we suggest you get behind the wheel of Big Mutha Truckers 2 right now as it's a trucking good laugh that cannot fail to raise a smile. A hit? Truck yeah! (Sorry.)

Our only problem with The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is that, after a while, the brainless stomping does become a little one dimensional, but then again that is the nature of the comic book licence and this is certainly a step above recent titles such as "The Fantastic Four" and "Batman Begins."

The multiplayer co-op mode is nothing to write home about, and the adversarial split-screen is nothing short of totally pointless.

If you're a social creature you need this, and even if you're a semi-hermit who refuses to let your hair down, it will make casual visitors think that you jump around when you're alone and that gives you a sexy mystique. No doubt.

An immensely enjoyable shooter with adrenaline-soaked action, a Todd McFarlane attitude and a Marilyn Manson edge. Welcome to the dark side.

While the single-player may be short work for the fans and hard going for the casuals, the multiplayer action is a massive incentive to pick up this excellent bargain buy.

While we can't see Lock-On bringing the genre back to the masses, the sheer visual appeal, the depth of the missions and ability to customise and make the game your own should see it do a lot better than recent efforts.

Unlike most other FPS titles, combat can take place at great range, as well as up-close when you and you're squad must move house to house.

No doubt the satisfaction gleaned is as alien to some as the allure of Sudoku to others, but being in that small Tactics RPG clique makes it all the sweeter.

The Live options are up there with the best of them and cover everything from team support to Live stats and leaderboards. However, as with many titles that focus on the thrills of Live play, offline it is fairly run of the mill. The game's saving grace, though, is the huge scale of every battle.

The different game modes are good for a giggle, but they aren't good enough to compensate for a tennis game that promises a great deal more than it serves up.

Yes, Colosseum is a lot like Shadow Of Rome but with number juggling and a total lack of slightly incongruous stealth sections.

Sure, the bizarre and quirky style might not be to everyone's taste, but if it is possible to create a revolution in the pinball genre, then Flipnic is the game to do it and is certainly worthy of your attention.

Crisp and detailed car models and detailed tracks filled with things to avoid or risk destroying makes for some impressive sightseeing.

FlatOut wants to be a cool racing and rallying game with an arcade edge, but it ends up being a routine disappointment. [XBM]

A fantastic port of the PC title and is incredibly addictive to play, but it could've been so much better. As it is, this is more like the Jack Sparrow of the pirate world; it doesn't quite reach the kind of class you'd expect from a pirate like One-Eyed Willy.

One particular puzzle is solved by gathering Oompa Loompas and setting them to tasks while Charlie does the more physical work such as throwing vine balls into pipes. It's as pointless a task as Sisyphus' punishment in Hades, and you have to do it five times. In a row.

A quirky curiosity, not always enjoyable to play and not always fair, either. It'll appeal to small minority - if you like the way that the game looks, then you'll get something out of it, if you don't, then you should avoid Killer7 at all costs... It's just not much fun to play.

After all, any self-respecting Halo 2 Live player who actually misses out on these nine new maps is probably beyond help anyway.

No matter how you approach Maximum Impact, it will disappoint. In trying to drag a 2D series into three dimensions, SNK Playmore has forgotten what made its own King Of Fighters games so celebrated and what makes 3D fighting games fun to begin with.

Seven Studios has tried its best to offer a mix of gameplay elements with rescue operations and mini-games included but these aren't enough to break up the monotony of the copious smash and saunter sections.

It's rare for a game of this type to actually be more than a mad single-button-mashing romp that creates more blisters than excitement; it's just unfortunate that the whole game wasn't as polished.

In the history of PS2 platformers, there has never been an example that positively drips character like Psychonauts does. In fact, you'd be hard pushed to find an example in any genre.

Aside from a few camera issues the game is visually stunning, combine this with the show stealing repartee between the major players and Destroy All Humans! becomes an almost essential addition to your gaming galaxy.

If it's not parodying some of the world's most loved (or loathed) film franchises - such as Star Wars, The Terminator and Saving Private Ryan - it's having a pop at drugs, nationality and anything else that has been hijacked by the world of political correctness.

Had the develop[ers] only thought about what it was doing a little bit more it could have made an astonishingly good game using the source material provided.

Caught in an awkward middle ground where it's not as accessible as "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection," not as deep as "Capcom VS SNK 2: EO" and not as buoyant as "King Of Fighters 2002."

The biggest problem with Batman Begins is that it tries to imitate both "Splinter Cell" and "Burnout," two fantastic games that ought to combine for a very successful title. Unfortunately, with Batman at the helm, they turn into parodies bordering on farce.

The Juiced of 2005 is virtually unrecognisable from the Juiced of 2004, and quite frankly it puts "Need For Speed Underground" to shame.

The story mode is tough, but relatively short, and it becomes quite clear that Samurai Western is more of a blood soaked sprinter than a legendary long-distance athlete of a game.

The multiplayer is okay, with nine additional maps, but it's otherwise a fairly short adventure without much variety and, annoying as it is, you won't return too often.

Xbox owners will always be left with the bitter feeling that this game should have been so much more on their console.

Step aside, gaming connoisseurs and parents, because it's most definitely a kids' game.

Admittedly, it has a streak of good humour running through it and a few unlockable two-player mini-games, but they're unlikely to encourage completion.

The fact is, Cold Winter repeatedly enables the player to do things you just wouldn't expect to be able to do. Big guns even break crates more easily than small guns; such is the developer's level of consideration.

But the points at which Haunting Ground really begins to open up and offer something you can't get from other horror titles are the moments when you get to use Hewie to help you.